Tag Archives: Portland

Happy July 4th (to those of us in the US) but more importantly, Happy “Begin the Countdown to INANE 2014!” Yes, exactly one month from today we will be convening in Portland, Maine for our 33rd Annual Meeting. After three years of planning, I can hardly believe the conference is just 30 days away!

Registration is at an all-time high: as of today, 147 people are scheduled to attend the conference. We have a maximum of 150 so there are just a few slots left. If you have been thinking about attending the conference, I would suggest submitting your registration ASAP. Once we reach our maximum of 150, registration will be closed.

Due to a last minute cancellation, we have one space available for the Casco Bay Cruise and Lobster Bake on Tuesday evening, August 5. If you would like to snap up that one spot, contact me immediately and I will send information on how to register. Thanks!

Guidebook: the mobile app that allows you to carry INANE 2014 in the palm of your hand! Our INANE 2014 Guidebook is completely customized to our conference with links to the schedule, speakers, conference evaluations, and more. You can download to your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet, or Kindle Fire. There is also a web version of the guide. One great update made in the past month: your Guidebook will sync between your devices. So if you set up your schedule on your iPhone, it will now update on your iPad (or other device). I think this was the single most requested feature in Guidebook–which the developers insisted couldn’t be done–but somehow they made it happen! Note that our Guidebook is private; you must have a code to redeem the guide and make it live on your device. I have sent the code to every registrant, but if you have lost it, no problem! Just send me a message and I will get the code to you ASAP!

Sightseeing: Norm Forgey of Maine Day Trip stands ready to entertain INANE attendees. There is a trip to Boothbay Harbor and the Maine Botanical Gardens scheduled for Sunday, August 3rd. Norm is also working on a private tour of the Winslow Homer Studio on Prout’s Neck. For more information or to schedule a trip, contact Norm at norm@mainedaytrip.com or by phone: 207-838-5275.

Check-in: All the members of the Planning Committee will be arriving and be on-site at the Regency on Sunday, August 3rd. Registration check-in will be open on Sunday from 5 pm to 7 pm in the Main Lobby of the Regency. Three publishers (LWW, Elsevier, and Wiley) will be having meetings on Monday morning, so save yourself a few minutes and check-in on Sunday evening! The Check-in/Help Desk will also be open throughout the entire conference.

A quick recap of the schedule (check Guidebook or the Website for complete details):

It’s going to be a great conference! I am so excited to welcome my colleagues to Portland for our 33rd Annual Meeting. If you have any questions or need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am here to help!

A bit of excitement in Portland yesterday, when the Nova Star arrived in Portland Harbor. The ship will be offering round-trip service between Portland, ME and Yarmouth, NS beginning on May 15th. If you are attending INANE, you will very likely see the ship–the dock is just a few blocks from the Regency Hotel. It will leave at 9 pm at night and arrive in Yarmouth, NS at 8 am, then turn around and do the same trip in reverse.

You can read more about the Nova Star, along with viewing some nice pictures by clicking here.

Being the good nurses that we are, I suspect that when most of us attend a conference, we dutifully attend all the conference sessions that we can manage, meet up with a few friends and acquaintances (there is never time to see everyone), and then leave just in time to make it home for the next event on our busy calendars–all without seeing anything beyond the four walls of the hotel and the sights to and from the airport from the windows of the hotel shuttle!

But this year’s INANE conference in August could be different! Here is the perfect opportunity for a blend of work and fun…a lovely New England setting at the peak of ideal summer weather (not too hot, not too cold–just right!) and a host of things to see and do, many of them off the beaten track. To heighten the fun, Leslie and the Planning Committee have arranged a special opportunity for INANE attendees with Norm Forgey of Maine Day Trip: personalized guided tours for you and your traveling companions. Your trip can take any direction at any pace you wish! Norm is reserving the dates from Saturday, August 2nd, through Thursday, August 7th exclusively for us. Whether you are flying to Portland, or taking the bus or train–here’s your chance to forego a rental car and see a bit more of this beautiful state beyond the environs of the city of Portland. Make a reservation and Norm will meet you at the entrance of the Regency Hotel for a total day of fun, sightseeing, and relaxation!

Norm Forgey, founder and owner of Maine Day Trip

You may notice that Norm’s trips are available before and after INANE as well as throughout the time that our exciting and irresistible conference will be happening. For conference participants, I am sure you will not be inclined to take off for a day trip during this time (see paragraph one if you don’t believe me!). But if you have others traveling with you who are not attending the conference, this is a perfect opportunity for them to get out and about. Norm will schedule trips for groups of one to ten people and create the itinerary based on folks’ interests.

The challenge is that our companions often do not know anyone else, but might appreciate connecting with others to share a day of adventure. And, you might be interested in connecting with other INANE folks for a day trip before or after our conference. You can contact Norm and tell him: 1) day you want to tour; 2) number of people; and 3) what you’d like to see. He’ll create tours based on the input he receives and confirm directly with you when the planning is finalized.

Note that this is a little different from the way Norm usually schedules his trips, but he is willing to be flexible to offer the maximum number of attendees and friends a great day trip. For another way to connect with others about planning and gauge interest about dates and itineraries, consider leaving a comment on this post. Either way, remember that your perfect off-site adventure awaits! Visit our Traveling Further Afield page now to start planning!

A journalist’s hotel room in Sochi

I’ve been watching the Olympics and had a good laugh at some of the horror stories about hotel accommodations for journalists. I haven’t been to the Regency (yet) but Leslie assures me that all the hotel rooms have desks big enough for computers and the water that comes out of the tap is clear, fresh, and safe for bathing, drinking, and brushing your teeth! If you haven’t do so yet, take this as a reminder to register for the conference, reserve your hotel room, and make your travel plans to Portland. The regular registration rate is in effect for another ten weeks so don’t delay. It will go up by $100 on May 1st. I suspect by that time the Casco Bay Cruise and Lobster Bake will be sold out and the best hotel rooms will be reserved. Don’t wait too long and be disappointed!

I look forward to seeing my colleagues in Portland in August. It’s going to be a terrific conference!

The end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 is only six weeks away – always an intensely packed time frame. So we want to get a bit ahead of the distractions of the holidays to remind you about our INANE 2014 end-of-year deadlines.

First, are abstract submissions, due by January 1, 2014. We already have several submissions, so if you want to have your idea considered for the program, head on over to the “Abstract submission” page and fill out the online form! Please take a minute to do so so you can share your editing innovations with your INANE colleagues next summer.

And, in the next six weeks, until the end of this year, you too can be an early bird registrant for the conference. This means that you can register for only $395, compared to the mid-range price of $495 (from January 1 – April 30) and the full price of $595 (after April 30).

This saving is impressive if you only look at the numbers, but consider all that INANE 2014 registration offers!

Attendance at all Keynote, Breakout, and Poster Sessions.

Access to all password protected online resources for the conference: PDFs, presentations, evaluation forms, and more.

Access to the Guidebook mobile app–all participants will have the full conference program, info on speakers, and more in the palm of their hand.

The planning committee has a dynamite lineup for the plenary sessions. The first plenary session features Jeffrey Beall, who writes the essential blog that many of us follow, Scholarly Open Access. Our own Carolyn Yucha (editor Biological Research for Nursing) joins Jeffrey with a unique nursing perspective on the rise of predatory publishing initiatives aimed at nurses.

The other major plenary session features Charles Graeber, author of “The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness and Murder” and Diana Mason, former Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Nursing and founder of the Center for Health Media Policy. Diana served as a consultant in the preparation of “The Good Nurse,” and they will be discussing the process of writing and publishing this book, as well as implications and challenges that writers and journal editors face for responsible reporting on healthcare.

We on the planning team are very excited about this conference, and we know that this will be an outstanding conference! You won’t want to miss this one, so consider taking advantage of the early bird registration now, and consider submitting your abstract for the program!

This is a new initiative for the INANE conference – a grant fund to support folks who are new to nursing journal editing, or interested in becoming editors. We (members of the planning committee) recognize how important INANE is for those who are just coming in to this role, and what better way to promote their participation in our group than to help them attend our conference?!

This fund will only support new editors and folks who have an emerging interest in editing and publishing, such as peer reviewers, editorial board members, and authors. The grants will cover the conference registration cost for up to four people.

Everyone can contribute to the fund, and the number of grants that we can award will depend on your donations. We hope to raise $2000 to cover the cost of four conference registrations. Funds raised in excess of $2000 (if people are generous) will be passed on the Carolyn Yucha and the planning committee for INANE 2015, so that they may continue this program. Please visit the “Developing Editors Grant Fund” page today to make your contribution!

You might be wondering why we are doing all of this so far in advance of the conference! Here are a few reasons!

We, members of the planning committee, are doing this all on our own! This has been done before, but typically either an academic institution or a publisher has provided back-up for this effort, providing, among other things, the advance funding necessary to reserve the venue. Getting started early helps us cover the early expenses involved in getting the conference underway – special thanks to Leslie’s business, Maine Desk, which has provided financial support with deposits for the venue and special events.

We are “experimenting” with a number of new features many of which involved advance planning – the Editors Development Fund being one of them. Here are few other new things we are doing:

We have developed this unique and comprehensive web site.

This will be a “paperless” conference – stay tuned to this blog to learn more along the way.

We are planning ways for attendees to participate and interact in ways like never before. All of these features have involved long-term advance planning, and some are limited to a certain number … so visit our “Events” and “Program” pages to find out more, and sign up early.

Perhaps the prime reason we are doing this so early is that we are just plain excited about this conference and could not wait to unveil the details for everyone! We have had great fun putting it together, and the folks we have invited as featured speakers have all been wonderful to work with – and are excited about connecting with our group as well.

We hope you can join us! Visit the “Registration” page today to begin your journey to Portland, Maine in 2014. If you do this before the end of the year you can take advantage of the “Early Bird” registration fee. If you are not able to be there – never fear … we are lining up several “reporters” who will blog, post on Facebook, and Tweet every day!